Well, Roberts is a known never-Trumper, but I think he can see that removal is not ever going to be in the cards, so he will just stay silent.
There is no good precedent and if he says "yes" to witnesses but doesn't allow Hunter and Ciarmella he will be seen as overly partisan, and will earn Trump's undying enmity.
Even one of the Rs who will vote for witnesses says she wants equal numbers of defense and prosecution witnesses. The Ds do not want Hunter under any circumstances, Joe is a wild card, but could be a disaster for them, and Ciarmella will raise many questions of Schitt and his staff.
In the back of my mind, I am seeing one D defection on witnesses to put the nail in the coffin...
The stupid, it panders.
There shouldn't even be a trial, and if this was a criminal case it would be dismissed on a pre-trial motion. One has to 1) read minds and 2) impute bad motive and 3) hallucinate an effect on the election in order to conclude that Trump did anything improper at all.
But assume for the sake of argument there was a credible allegation of wrong. Getting to the truth isn't a numbers game. It is finding the right evidence.
-- In the back of my mind, I am seeing one D defection on witnesses ... --
Manchin and Synima maybe. None of the others. They are purely partisan hacks, in it just for their own self-benefit. I honestly think none of them has a conscience and all of them are clinically sociopaths.